Customer Reviews

500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: and the Very Best Places to Eat Them

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

On the Road Again

Once again Jane and Michael Stern have come up with a food guide, or rather a guide to places where you can get `real' food. Food that one just longs to eat -pies, ice cream, cake, ribs, just think of anything that you are warned is not health food... that is food to long for. Who wouldn't want to find the best, or the 500 things to eat before it's too late. Now whether that is too late for you or too late for these wonderful places to exist is a matter of conjecture.
The book itself is arranged in a different manner than the Sterns' other food books and most other foodie guides. First there are colored `tabs' for the different regions of the US - New England, Mid Atlantic, South, Midwest, Southwest and Great Plains and West. So you can immediately find the section of the country you want. At the beginning of each chapter is a map with the names of featured towns. Then each state list is divided into foods, such as Crumb Cake, Stuffed Ham, French Fries with the town and page numbers. Once you get used to this style it is easy to find information. The size of the book is very portable. Less than 1 inch thick and approximately 5 x 8 inches. Pages are smooth and colorful with plenty of pictures both of food and the stores themselves.
The back has two indexes; one to eateries, divided by state and city, handy if you are sitting somewhere looking for something other than golden arches and a general index which lists eateries, food, even a few recipes that are included.
Phone numbers, addresses, web sites are included - always helpful information Of course there are the reviews and information, sometimes a history or other fascinating tidbits. Better than just plain information is the poetic love of great food. I was impressed with several regional specialties that you will not find elsewhere and the style with which they are written of. When they write of southern Maryland's little known stuffed ham, they write of a dish that exists no where but in an ancient spit of land where the air smells of the sea - how can you resist the hunt for something like that?
My only complaint and frustration is the placement of National Best lists, which inexplicably are stuck in different places of the book and will for example list a food item from another region of the country -pizza in New England section, but Franks is in Illinois and then is not listed in the Illinois - Midwest section. That makes no sense. But it still isn't frustrating enough to give up on this as a guide, just surprising for what I expect from the Sterns
I have given these books as wedding presents, as going away presents and even to a friend from England who drove cross country - he now thinks America is the greatest country in the galaxy. How else could he or you for that matter find johnnycakes, shoofly pie, conch chowder, cinnamon buns, green corn tamales or huckleberry sweets. This book might be the utmost reason ever for a cross country trip. This is why I use these Road Food books as my traveling and local guides. This is my new guide that I can see will lead us to continued adventures, meeting the locals and going places that we might have by-passed on the super highways of life. Read this, follow some food adventures before it is too late

I love the idea of regional American cuisine, and as I travel nearly every week for work, guides like this are a wonderful tool to help find the best local favorites. Generally speaking, this guide is excellent: colorful, descriptive, honest, and well laid out. I have no beef with the "national" sections: comparing fries, pizza, pancakes, burgers, and ribs across the country is a great way to see how varied we still are.

I have a couple of complaints, though. First, Hawaii is completely left off. While I understand that driving to the islands is difficult, any survey of American regional cuisine must include the plate lunch, Waiola shave ice, ramen shops, Leonard's malasadas, Mr. Mandoo's giant steamed Korean buns, and Dim Sum in Chinatown (admittedly, this could have been in San Francisco too).

Second, and on the same trend, Asian food gets amazingly short shrift. I'm glad that many Southwestern and Mexican specialties get a write-up, but to include only Ichiban PB and to leave off such great Asian-American classics as sushi, dim sum, pad thai and more seems wrong. Consider Chinese food, which for generations has been a mainstay of American eating. Completely missing, yet I would argue that American Chinese food is much more American than Chinese.

Third, Connecticut gets WAAAAAAY too much credit. By my count, only California (68) has more entries than Connecticut (56). Illinois (52), New York (40), Tennessee (42), Texas (54), all have fewer great food places than tiny little Connecticut. Massachusetts, with twice the population and a similar ethnic mix, has only 23 entries. I appreciate the Stemed Cheesburger and New Haven pizza, but SEVEN ice cream places (compared to 10 for the other states combined)? That's just ridiculous.

Fourth, too often the authors take the easy way out and recommend the standard tourist-friendly location. Take for instance the Loveless Cafe in Nashville. They have fallen from grace a long time ago, and any Nashvillian will tell you that there are countless better places for country ham, biscuits, and banana pudding. Yet somehow, they still get a glowing recommendation in the book. A similar story in Chicago, where no local will swear by Al's #1 anymore, yet it still gets the #1 rating for Italian Beef.

But these are small things that can easily be fixed in a next edition. After all, when you add up all the foods mentioned, you only come to 269 (including two separate listings for doughnuts). When you add up all the restaurant listings, since most foods have several restaurants listed, you get 931. I don't know where 500 came from, but there are plenty more foods to be added to make a nice round number! Consider buffalo wings, guacamole, lox and bagels, fried green tomatoes, gumbo, green chile, she-crab soup, cornbread... all inexlicably left out.

All in all, a controversial tome, but still well worth enjoying, if for nothing else than to bicker with your friends and family.

The food photos in this book, which should be a highlight, are awful! Although the text motivates the reader to locate and eat the dishes, the photos are a turnoff. There should also be a link to send the authors the reader's own favorite noshes. For example, if you live in Imperial Beach or Coronado in the San Diego area, the Star-Lite shack's (open whenever the owner feels like it) cake donuts are absolutely amazing. And this reader doesn't even like donuts.

I bought "500 Things To Eat..." because I am a Stern's Junkie. I love these guys and the way they write up the places they visit, hear about or imagine in their minds. I don't always agree with their assessments of places or dishes but I spend hours reading and re-reading their books. Good Book, Good Price, Good Reading! )

We just got back from a five week road trip out west and back. This book was a great resource during the trip. We would spend a couple of days in a town and look to see what the book suggested. It was an adventure and the book provided an eating diversion from the regular hit and miss. It never disappointed, food was as described and made for destinations to see that we would not normally venture to. Well worth the purchase.

Any traveler in America who wants to sample cheap eats and local specialties will find 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late the perfect take-along tote. It covers everything from beachside stands and Texas barbecue to regional dishes that don't get much publicity outside their hometowns. Maps, color sidebars of information, unique places to shop - and recipes - make this an outstanding acquisition that stands apart from your usual travel guide.

While the Sterns's Roadfood guide has long been a reliable guide to local eateries, they've this time produced a book that is an equally fascinating (and educational) read. While Roadfood was a state by state and restaurant by restaurant guide, 500 Things to Eat takes a cuisine by cuisine approach. This enables readers to learn the regional differences found in, say, chili and barbeque, or where to seek out local foods such as Virginia ham or green chile tomales. While some excellent and unique places have been left out, the authors' inclusions are almost always dead accurate in selection and information. I would rank the book five stars except for one flaw: while the indexes in the back are usually accurate, the state by state indexes at the beginning of each chapter get quite a few page numbers wrong.

They were right! Just visited The Enrico Biscotti Company in Pittsburgh, PA. Attended one of their bread classes and WOW! Enrico/Larry is such an exciting guy and the stories with all the history about the importance of bread is just fantastic. Yes, the biscotti is incredible too! - Thanks Michael & Jane for this recommendation.

500 Things To Eat Before It's Too Late: and the Very Best Places To Eat ThemA fascinating ride around the US describing local and regional eateries which feature delicious and unusual foods, most of which have been created by the owners of the eateries. Mouthwatering photos enable you to know what to expect. These authors have spent more than 20 years combing the US for unusual food specialties.In this book they compare delicious products available in more than one restaurant which is helpful in deciding which place to eat.

If you listen to Splendid Table every week like I do, you feel like you know the Sterns well. And this book is an excellent extension of their love for road food. I love the layout - by food rather than by city. The pictures, while not fancy, make you feel like you are looking at their personal scrapbook. Love it!